Tuesday, August 31, 1999
Woman in shed died of overdose
Police now ask: Who moved body?
BY MICHAEL D. CLARK
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Patricia Ann Barrett
|
HAMILTON — The police investigation into the death of Patricia Ann Barrett has shifted from who killed the mother of five to who dumped her body in a farmhouse shed after she died.
Officials from the Butler County coroner's office said Monday that Ms. Barrett's death was ruled accidental: an overdose of alcohol and cocaine.
Her body was discovered Aug. 15 behind an empty farmhouse in the 5900 block of Todd Road in Oxford Township, just north of the Oxford city limits.
Ms. Barrett, 27, did not have custody of her children. She had drifted among odd jobs and residences in and around Hamilton.
Police investigators said she disappeared two days before her body was found. They continue to search for suspects connected with the dumping of her body.
“The crime scene would indicate that someone else was at least involved with placing her body there,” said Butler County Sheriff's Maj. Anthony Dwyer.
“There's other trauma to her, so we will continue investigating that aspect of the case also,” Maj. Dwyer said. He declined to elaborate on the nature of her injuries.
“The ruling on the cause of the death is only one aspect of the case. We still have a crime to be investigated and to hopefully solve,” he said.
Ms. Barrett's sister, Kathy Messer, said she was aware her younger sister drank alcohol but had no idea that she used cocaine.
“Something's not right here. If it was an accidental death, then why was she in that shed?” Ms. Messer asked.
She said her younger sister had no history of mental illness, drug use or serious criminal activity outside of run-ins with the law while a teen.
Ms. Barrett most recently spent time in the south Hamilton area, investigators said.
She was last seen in the early hours of Aug. 13 near Ohio 4 in south Hamilton, between Symmes and Bobmeyer roads. At least three people talked to her near that time, but none knows what happened to her afterward.
Anyone with information should call the sheriff's office at 887-3010.
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